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	<h3>Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):</h3>

	<div data-dojo-type="dijit.TitlePane"
		data-dojo-props="title: 'How and why was CRN Services founded?'">
		I had worked in an
		academic center for several years as a research administrator and
		observed much inefficiency in the way it was managing the business end
		of research. A couple of areas— Primarily budget negotiation, patient
		recruitment and identification of new studies—seemed to be poorly
		managed because the people handling those duties were all nurses or
		doctors. That Wasn’t their core skill set. The desire to help
		physicians get involved in studies and independent sites build their
		businesses by identifying new trials for them was what prompted me to
		found CRN.
	</div>
	<div data-dojo-type="dijit.TitlePane"
		data-dojo-props="title: 'What is CRN business model?'">
		<p class="answer" style="display: none">What we offer sponsors is a
		large network of independent research sites that are screened
		according to quality indicators and matched to studies based on
		sponsor requirements. We’ve done extensive background checks on each
		of the sites we’re affiliated with. Based on a set of criteria that we
		use to evaluate and mitigate the risk of affiliating with individual
		sites, we accept about 40% of the interested sites. When sites
		indicate their interest in a study, we pre-qualify them for that
		specific trial by assessing their investigator questionnaires, prior
		trial experience and sponsor requirements before submitting
		appropriate sites for sponsor consideration. The refined group of
		pre-qualified investigators we submit closely matches what the sponsor
		is looking for, and our selection rate is almost 60%. Study
		performance is what ultimately determines our reputation for
		delivering quality sites, which is also the reason sponsors and
		contract research organizations CROs? continue coming to CRN for
		potential sites. What we offer sites is a steady stream of trial
		opportunities we’ve identified that are matched to those sites’
		capabilities and therapeutic interests. We offer, on average, 25 new
		studies each month. Most sites don’t see 25 because part of CRN’ value
		is that we identify and filter a broad range of studies to provide new
		opportunities that meet individual sites’ needs. We provide access to
		studies that sites wouldn’t have otherwise found—we want to supplement
		experienced sites’ access to trials, not supplant their existing
		efforts. Our sites, on average, have experience working on 90 clinical
		trials. Many of them are quite large themselves and are looking to
		maintain a high level of research activity. For some sites, just
		getting one or two studies from us is plenty and well worth the
		affiliation. Other sites are interested in many more. We have
		non-exclusive contracts with our sites. If they’re selected for the
		study and if the study moves forward, they pay a fee to us. We give
		sites a couple of different options, including terms based on a
		percentage of the budget, a flat fee and sliding scale arrangements.
		One of the things we found necessary and beneficial for everyone
		involved is to be accommodating to meet the needs of sites, so the
		agreements do have some flexibility.</p>
		</div>
	<div data-dojo-type="dijit.TitlePane"
		data-dojo-props="title: 'Do you do any contract and budget negotiation on behalf of sites?'">
		<p class="answer" style="display: none">No, we do not. The sites
		negotiate their own budgets and contracts with the sponsor or CRO. We
		have found that both the sites and the sponsors and CROs prefer that
		approach, for the most part. There are some who have interest in a
		central contract, but we trust that the sites will negotiate with
		their best interest in mind and pay us should the study move forward.
		I know that some organizations like ours are involved in contracting
		or named as a third-party payee for the study, but such a small piece
		of the budget goes to us that I didn’t feel we needed to be money
		managers as well.</p>
		</div>
	<div data-dojo-type="dijit.TitlePane"
		data-dojo-props="title: 'What differentiates CRN from other study brokers?'">
		<p class="answer" style="display: none">Quality assurance and
		process improvement. We’ve seen competitors come into study brokering
		with messages promoting larger site networks and the speed of
		referrals, where as CRN focuses on identifying the most qualified
		sites for each study. This is accomplished by critically evaluating
		sites from the start, discussing trial requirements with the sponsor
		or CRO to make the best match and continually tracking site
		performance and sponsor feedback. We’ve built a lot of SOPs operating
		procedures?, and we maintain those as well as the processes around the
		way we evaluate and submit sites. We’re also focused on improving our
		algorithm for site selection and trying to build a model where we can
		identify factors that predict site performance.</p>
		</div>
	<div data-dojo-type="dijit.TitlePane"
		data-dojo-props="title: 'What challenges do you face?'">
		<p class="answer" style="display: none">Confusion in the
		marketplace regarding the various business models. Sponsors and CROs
		that are unclear on our model might think we’re an SMO management
		organization? or a TMO management organization?. The definitions for
		groups of sites are like moving targets, so explaining and
		reexplaining our structure and services can be a challenge. The
		economic decline is also a challenge. There’s been a little bit of a
		slowdown in the volume of studies. We’ve also seen sites struggle
		because their margins are very tight. We get paid only when our sites
		are paid, so we see some impact from both the slowdown and the
		historically slow payment of investigators.</p>
		</div>
	<div data-dojo-type="dijit.TitlePane"
		data-dojo-props="title: 'How has the clinical research industry changed?'">
		<p class="answer" style="display: none">From the industry
		perspective, pharmaceutical companies and CROs are getting more
		sophisticated in the way they capture performance feedback. For site
		performance benchmarks, a lot of what the industry relies on is
		self-reported capability—’I can enroll 15 patients and I have all this
		equipment and my staff is experienced in this and that,’—but where’s
		the proof? I’ve seen larger sponsors and CROs work on really measuring
		performance. Some of them have built a feedback loop to determine how
		quickly sites are enrolling their first patient and so on. We are
		trying to do the same.</p>
		</div>
	<div data-dojo-type="dijit.TitlePane"
		data-dojo-props="title: 'What are your plans for growth?'">
		<p class="answer" style="display: none">CRN currently has
		affiliations with sites in India, Mexico and Canada. Expanding into
		additional countries outside the United States is definitely something
		we’re interested in. We receive occasional requests from companies
		that are interested in identifying sites in particular regions of the
		world, so our growth in that area would be based on the requests that
		we get and the way the industry is shifting. We will also have some
		growth of our U.S. site network. There are some specialty areas that
		we’re very interested in expanding into—for example, oncology and
		pediatrics—and we continue to develop affiliations with sites in all
		other therapeutic areas. We’re doing quite a bit of outreach to
		research sites to make them aware of our services, our position in the
		marketplace and the benefits we provide to independent research sites.
	</p>
		</div>

	
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